Chapter 30 - Fear

                                    

                                          
Levi sadly watched Hange and Lara turn their back on him in the gallery, getting out of sight as they went down the stairs.
	"If my daughter hates me for now on, Erwin," said Levi, as they followed the crowd to leave the courtroom, "you'll pay for this!"
	"Ah... Stop overreacting!" replied Erwin. "Just tell her that it was an agreement between us, and that if we hadn't done it, we wouldn't have won."
	"It's easy for you to say," said Levi, annoyed. "It wasn't your daughter who looked deep into your soul with the greatest disgust."
	"Just give her a box of chocolates and everything will be solved. I myself do this all the time when I wanna ask her to deliver the reports on my behalf, when I'm feeling lazy. She asks me for a fair amount of chocolates, and when I delay her payment, she only charges me half chocolate of interest rate per day, which is a great deal, considering the delivery market nowadays."
	"Have you been using my daughter as a carrier pigeon?"
	"But Lara's an excellent carrier pigeon!"
	"Does Hange know you've been giving candy to our daughter?"
	"Yes, and she even encourages it. She says that the fact that Lara has to run to make the deliveries makes her legs stronger."
	"But Hange never told me anything about it!"
	"So, I think you'd better have a DTR, because we can clearly see that you both have a big problem with communication."
	"Certainly we will, because if Lara gets tooth decay, I'm the one who has to pay for her treatment!"
	"Stop being boring. Are you going to prevent your daughter from being happy just because she eats a few candies sometimes?"
	"I'm not preventing my daughter from being happy. In fact, I do everything I can to make sure she's always smiling... For your information, she already told me I'm her hero."
	"That's funny, because Lara also told me that..."
	"WHAT?!" Levi suddenly turned very red, furious.
	"I'm only kidding you," Erwin patted his friend on the back. "Look. There they are."
	Levi watched the girls, still hugging each other, while Hange talked to Mike. Suddenly, he had a thought. As he watched Hange and Mike together, a huge feeling of anguish got into his heart. Hange turned her face and noticed Levi coming in her direction, still a little afar. She turned back to Mike, ignoring him completely. Levi kept watching them both, thinking about how Mike, unlike him, seemed to be a very gentle and calm man, not this violent freak that he showed at the court. Despite the fact that Lara really enjoys Mike's company. Would he have to compete with a fourth father?!
	"That's great..." Levi snorted to Erwin, "In addition to my daughter, now my wife must also hate me."
	"Your what?!" Erwin looked at him, surprised.
	"I-I mean," stuttered Levi, turning redder than before, "My mom, no! I mean... My... The mom... Lara's mom."
	"Hange's her name."
	"Yes!"
	"Easy there, champion," Erwin patted Levi on the back again. "You two haven't reached that level yet."
	"But you know that I'm almost there..." sighed Levi, as he looked at Hange. "Just a little bit more..."
	"Yes, I know," replied Erwin, smiling.
	They approached Mike, Hange, and Lara. Erwin greeted everyone with a big smile and Levi just nodded, while squeezing his own hands at his sides. Quickly, Erwin signaled Mike to leave them alone, who promptly complied and they left into the hallway, with the rest of the few people who were still around.